This is an engaging and varied recital of clarinet and percussion music, most of it Swedish and dating from the 1990s. The most venerable piece on it is Edison Denisov's Sonata for B Flat Clarinet solo. Dating from 1972, this work, with its innovative use of micro-intervals has the status of the old classic on this program.
There are two composers represented by a pair of works each. Anders Hillborg contributes two very short related works named Nursery Rhymes and Close Ups, both for clarinet and percussion. In each, the clarinet's agility is tested in rapid twelve-tone figurations that ride over a filigree of light percussion sounds. The attacks are sometimes hard edged, but these compositions are done before they have a change to outwear their welcome.
Pär Lindgren's two compositions are both inspired by patterns found in nature. Woodpecker's Chant is for percussion alone and expands on the typical rhythms of this bird. Beep-Ooh, for clarinet and percussion, is a sometimes frightening, intense exposition on a hooting bird's call, with hard-edged, tense sounds from the clarinet.
American composer JoAnn Kucher-Morin is represented by Yugen, a clarinet solo work named after the Zen-like quality of the essential artistic experience that lies beneath the physical representation in a Noh drama. It calls for the clarinetist to start with wildly difficult fast playing and then subside into an almost trance-like slow conclusion. Pianist Niklas Siveläv's Twist and Shout has the solo clarinet take the role of a puppet, acting out his life while playing (an aspect the regular CD cannot achieve). Finally, Fredrik Hägberg adds tape and percussion to the clarinet, for an entertaining conclusion in Plast Musik, a rather whimsical piece.
The playing is top-rate throughout, as is the sound, produced and engineered by Hans Kipfer.